County schools outline plans for rezoning to limit new schools
By Donna O'Neil, Staff writer
doneil@williamsonherald.com
Dr. David Heath, interim director of schools, presented an overview of the overcrowding at county schools and the case for a new Trinity area elementary school at a joint meeting of the Williamson County Commission budget and education committees.
“We have no crystal ball,” he said with regard to numbers of students versus projections of those numbers over the next five years.
However he spoke at great length about a rezoning plan that would impact children from elementary through high school.
“We are looking to rezone to keep people in feeder patterns for the high school,” Heath said, who will be presenting his rezoning plans, with changes in the feeder patterns, to the Board of Education tonight at the work session tonight.
Beginning at the high school level, he said Brentwood and Independence high schools each currently have 50 more students that they should. Ravenwood is over capacity by 112 and that number could grow without a rezoning plan in place.
The remaining high schools are under capacity at this point. Page High School has room for 220 students; Centennial has room for 300 and Fairview could allow for up to 200 more students. Franklin High is near capacity with only 30 student places available.
He presented two rezoning options for the new south middle school, currently under construction and opening in September. Currently Heritage Middle School has 1,170 students and Page Middle has 1,000. Rezoning would reduce numbers at both schools, populating the new south middle school with either 472 or 588 students next year.
According to the numbers Health provided, two of the three elementary schools are overcrowded and one is dangerously close. Longview has 827 students, Chapman’s Retreat has 916 and Heritage Elementary School has 798 students enrolled.
“Trinity was the only school in the county that grew beyond projections,” Heath said, citing McKay’s Mills and two other subdivisions in the area. “There’s really no other solution except to build a new school.”
With Ravenwood High School currently over capacity and projects for the future to continue that way, Heath said a new high school in the east is also in the five-year plan.
Board policy is to cap enrollment at the high school level at 1,800 students. However, a temporary solution could see eight more portables added to Ravenwood creating a potential student population of 2,200 students. The alternative to building a new high school is to build an addition at Ravenwood at a cost of $3 million.
“I think we can make it through one and a half years to two years at Ravenwood by stacking up classrooms.”
The new southern high school is slated to open in 2011 and is well under way.
“We are not looking at rezoning the entire county,” Heath said. “We are trying to make zoning work for the next five years because its really upsetting to people to get zoned to one school and rezoned again in two years.”
Heath explained that funding requested would be for a school that would open in 2011. In addition to the west Franklin area and the south elementary schools, and the south middle school, all slated to open in the fall, Heath doesn’t see a need to propose “any more schools in the next 18 months, other than the two elementary schools and a new high school.”
Although no actual decision on the funding of the proposed new school in the Spring Hill area was made, both committees voted to advance the resolution requesting $20.8 million for design and construction to the full commission.
The Williamson County Commission will hold their next meeting Monday, Nov. 9.
Posted on: 11/5/2009
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